Me & My Money – Part 6 (what I’ve learnt)

 

I started off this challenge feeling pretty confident I had no problems controlling my spending, but one month into it, I wasn’t quite sure. Over the 4 month period of being deliberate with my money,  the lessons learnt are:

• Generic ‘How to Save‘ articles aren’t always accurate. Location and lifestyle are important considerations when following advice. For example,  articles targeted to a Nigerian audience advising setting up a direct debit once a month to make savings easier, isn’t really useful –  a large number of Nigerian employees do not have their salaries paid on time.
• Identify  your spending patterns to avoid impulse buying
• Discipline; the best laid plans require discipline
• Within reason, a person’s ability to save is  influenced by  earnings, responsibilities and lifestyle.
• Smaller expenses also add up!
• Use a bank card  when buying from those shops that never have change. Better still, insist on your change, you’ll be amused at how smaller notes appear when they realise you aren’t playing 🙂